


Eggnog

by anaer



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Party, Drunken Shenanigans, Humor, M/M, Strifehart Secret Santa 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 05:45:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8878261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anaer/pseuds/anaer
Summary: Squall learned the hard way to never drink eggnog outside the safety of his own home ever again, especially not when Aerith was involved.  Cloud, of course, got out of the situation with no real consequences because Cloud has no ability to get drunk and no shame.  Squall, who has both those things, didn’t fare so well.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fedrane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fedrane/gifts).



> Merry Christmas, Fedrane! Your Secret Santa gift~  
> :)

Squall learned the hard way to never drink eggnog outside the safety of his own home ever again, especially not when Aerith was involved.  Cloud, of course, got out of the situation with no real consequences because Cloud has no ability to get drunk and no shame.  Squall, who has both those things, didn’t fare so well. 

It was Zack and Aerith’s annual Christmas party.  December 23, this year, because everyone had plans.  Zack and Aerith were taking the kids – Sora and Roxas, who’d both just turned fourteen last month – to Disney World as a late birthday present.  Yuffie had plans for an elaborate beach vacation with Yuna, Rikku, and Paine.  Tifa had her own party to host at her bar on Christmas Eve.  Cloud and Squall had a long journey to get to Esthar for Laguna’s Christmas Eve Presidential Ball or some such.  There were other guests, of course, but the immediate friend group was the most relevant, and they all had time conflicts, so the twenty-third it was. 

“We’re late,” Squall groused for the fifth time that evening.  He sat on the couch, arms crossed and one foot kicked up on the coffee table.  Cloud stood in front of the mirror, still fiddling with his Santa costume.  It looked fine, just like it had looked fine ten minutes ago when Cloud had looked in the mirror and deemed something wrong with his red and white ensemble.

“It’s fine; Zack won’t care,” Cloud replied.  He adjusted his belt slightly.  Squall rolled his eyes.

“Your cousin won’t, but I’m going to have to deal with Aerith getting on my case about it at work for two weeks after we get back.”  Squall and Aerith worked together at a non-profit run by the slightly kooky but generally well-meaning, and exorbitantly rich Merlin.  It’s how he and Cloud had met, actually.  Zack had asked Cloud to drop something to Aerith one day.  Squall had been there, and they’d instantly hit it off.  Literally hit it off, in this case.  They’d gotten into a brawl over something stupid, the police had to be called, they’d both been arrested, spent the night in jail together, and when they’d emerged in the morning it had been with exchanged phone numbers and a date set for the weekend.  No one knew what, exactly, had gone down at the local sheriff’s station that night, but no one was complaining.  They’d been in love ever since.

“Okay!” Cloud announced.  “Done.”  He turned from the mirror and spread his arms wide.  Squall was unimpressed.  The Santa costume still looked exactly the same. 

“Great,” Squall said, honestly sincere, pulling himself to his feet.  “Let’s go.”

“One thing first,” Cloud said.  He walked over to Squall.  From behind his back, he produced a headband with fake antlers.  There were bells.  It jingled.  Cloud dropped it onto Squall’s head.  He was smirking something fierce the whole time, and Squall knew exactly why.  He should probably not have told Cloud he’d wear whatever dumb Christmas hat the blonde wanted to pick out for him, but in his defense, he’d expected more “elf” than “reindeer” based on years past.  Ah, well.  It was already done.

And just like that, they departed for the infamous Christmas party.

Zack and Aerith’s house was obnoxiously decorated, per usual.  They were the type with elaborate Christmas displays cleverly arranged across their yard, and lights that flashed in sync with music that blasted through the whole neighbourhood.  It was especially bad on party night.  It had been like this every year since they’d bought the house, and nearly as bad every year before that, too.  They’d been young parents, after all – sixteen and pregnant wasn’t an exaggeration – and had wanted to give their kids Christmases as extravagant and exciting as they still got.  They’d married as soon as they turned eighteen, and Zack had done what, in his mind, was the best thing for an eighteen year old with no special education and a wife and two twin babies could do:  he had joined the military.  It had been a great choice, too, perfect for him, at least right up until the whole “prisoner of war” stint, and the rescue, and the PTSD, and the medical discharge.  Nowadays, he just worked construction and collected military benefits.  Aerith had opted for the more traditional route – school, and three degrees – with her mother around to help take care of Sora and Roxas when she’d had class.  It had all worked out well for them. 

So well, in fact, that they threw the best Christmas bash every year, without fail.  The secret, Zack had soberly informed Cloud one day, was the eggnog.  It was their grandmother’s recipe, handed down through the ages and perfected by Aerith. Everyone at the party came for the eggnog.  Everyone but Squall.

This was Squall’s third year joining them, and to this time, he had not yet had a single sip of House Gainsborough-Fair’s famous brew.  The first year, not really knowing anyone, he hadn’t wanted to drink at all.  He was a bit of a teetotaler more often than not, especially when around strange new people and trying to impress his new boyfriend.  Year two brought more familiarity, but it also brought Squall’s unfortunate accident with his face.  He really needed to stop getting into fights with people – but at least Seifer had a scar to match.  The asshole.  So, he’d been on pain meds that year that did not mesh well with alcohol.  But third time was the charm. 

And, little did Squall know, but Aerith and Yuffie had a plan. 

Squall and Cloud stepped through the front door none the wiser.  Christmas music blasted even louder inside than outside through speakers wired in every room.  People bustled to and fro, the whole place packed.  The backyard was probably even worse.  Zack always invited literally every person he knew, which had gotten them some strange guests in the past.  The two of them dropped their coats into the closet and headed to the kitchen, the most likely spot to announce their presence this late in the game.  Squall paused before the doorway, and Cloud stopped, too, turning to him with a raised eyebrow.

“What?” he asked.

“You go first,” Squall said, pointing to the plant that hung in the doorway. 

Ah, right.  The mistletoe.  Zack and Aerith had started a tradition that anyone caught under the mistletoe would be loudly pointed out and have their picture taken.  Squall was opposed to that on principle.  Cloud snorted, but did as bidded.  Inside, they found Zack and Sora.

“Oh, hey, guys!” Zack greeted them eagerly when he saw them.  He bounded over and hugged first Cloud, then Squall.  He loomed over both of them, freakishly tall as he was.  Or maybe they were just short.  Cloud was definitely short, but Squall liked to pretend he wasn’t sometimes.  This is what led to him constantly fighting Seifer’s obnoxiously tall ass. 

“You’re like an hour late; Aerith was starting to wonder if you were even gonna make it.”  Squall shot Cloud a pointed look. “Nice antlers, by the way.”  He flicked one of the antlers on Squall’s head.  A bell jingled. 

“Hey, Zack—Sora,” Cloud replied.  Sora waved.  “Well, we’re here now.”

“Cloud couldn’t get the costume right,” Squall explained. 

“Ah, well, no matter—you’re just in time!  Sora was thirsty, so I was going to get him some eggnog.”  He waggled his eyebrows conspiratorially. Cloud stifled a laugh.  “You guys want some, too?”  He moved back over to the drink container.

“Yeah, sure,” Cloud said.

“Why not?” Squall shrugged.

Zack pulled out two extra glasses.  He poured the first glass a quarter of the way full and slid it to Sora.  The three adults watched the teen in fascination.

“Roxas is so missing out this year!” he exclaimed giddily.

“Where is tweedle-dum?” Cloud asked.  Zack made the rare distraught face. 

“You know he doesn’t like it when you call him that.  And he’s with his…gang.  They’re having a Christmas party, too, apparently.”  Zack was convinced that Roxas’s friend group was a gang of criminals. He had been ever since he’d come across that one redheaded one trying to light an abandoned building on fire one day.  The only reason Roxas still got to hang out with them is because Sora swore up and down that they were good guys, and Zack trusted Sora’s judgment.

Of course, Sora’s best friend was also Sephiroth’s child, so Cloud wasn’t sure if Sora’s judgement should be trusted or not. 

“Okay,” Sora said, psyching himself up.  He stared determinedly at the glass in front of him. “I’ve got this.”

“That’s the spirit!”  Zack said, enthusing him on.  He clapped Sora’s back.  The boy took a deep breath, picked up the glass, and knocked the whole thing back without a second thought.  He immediately doubled over, hacking. 

“Woah!” Zack exclaimed, bursting out laughing.  “Oh, God, your face!  You knocked the whole thing back; that was great, kid!”

“What the hell, dad?” Sora got out through the coughing.  “Oh God, that’s disgusting.”

“That was too good,” Zack continued, still giggling, and pouring full glasses for Cloud and Squall, who chuckled a bit themselves.  Squall took a quick wiff of the eggnog.  It smelled more like straight alcohol.  He took a small sip.  Strong was an understatement.  No wonder Sora was already looking flushed. 

Cloud took a sip and gagged.

“This is worse than last year’s!” he exclaimed. “You two turning into alcoholics?”

“Possibly,” Zack replied.  “I don’t question what Aer decides to throw in there.  Now go mingle, guys.  I gotta go take care of Sora before the wife finds out and kills me.”

He left the room, pulling his increasingly tipsy looking child along with him.  Cloud turned to Squall and gestured to the eggnog.  “You good with that?” he asked.  Squall took another sip. He shrugged.

“I don’t have work tomorrow, and you’re driving, anyway.  I’ll sip slowly.”

Cloud gave him a dubious look.  “If you insist,” he said. 

“I’ll be fine,” Squall reassured.  It didn’t reassure Cloud at all.  The last time Squall had said that, and there had been vast amounts of alcohol involved, his boyfriend had woken up three cities away, mostly naked in a field with a tattoo of a cloud across his butt.  It had turned out to be a temporary tattoo, unfortunately, because the tattoo artist he and Irvine had gone to was smart enough not to do anything with customers that drunk, or so Irvine had explained in his recap of events.  He’d given Cloud most of the rundown of the night’s events on the drive home after Squall had called him for a ride, and even then the blonde had zero idea what, exactly, had gone down. 

All Cloud knew was that Squall was a terrible drunk, and when he decided to say screw it with alcohol, it never ended prettily.  Cloud would never know for sure what had happened that night with Irvine, but he also wouldn’t know that that story was what had caused all the events that were about to take place. 

Cloud had, in passing one day, mentioned the story to Aerith.  Aerith had got talking to Tifa, and Tifa had got talking to Yuffie, and Yuffie to Selphie.  Given that Selphie’s boyfriend was Irvine, and therefore the cause of most of Squall’s bad decision drunken escapades (he was _that_ friend), boy did she have stories to share.  Yuffie and Aerith were both intrigued.  They only knew the uptight, slightly anal, and generally grouchy Squall.  This fun, exciting man of loose morals he could be seemed like a lie to them.

They had to see it.

And if Aerith poured a bit of extra rum into this year’s eggnog concoction, well, no one but Zack was the wiser.  And Cloud and Squall would never know that after spiriting Sora away, Zack had stopped in with Aerith to tell her it was game on.

No, they knew none of that.  They just did as Zack suggested and went outside, mingling with the rest of the guests.  Games were played, songs sung, and eggnog partaken of.  Reno got shitfaced early on, and Rude dragged him off somewhere to stop him from doing something everyone else would regret.  Aerith came around every now and again to refill people’s drinks.  Squall never took a refill, still making his way through his first glass.  He knew how to pace himself.   He did not, unfortunately, notice that every time he glanced away, Yuffie poured eggnog out of the glass she had into his. And then took another refill.  Cloud didn’t notice, either, too busy playing pin the tail on the reindeer.

“Where’s Sora?” Aerith wondered out loud.  “He loves this game.”  Squall snorted, but didn’t say anything at her curious look.  He just took another sip of eggnog. 

Cloud was the first one to notice that something was different with Squall.  He’d just lost the latest round of Christmas scattergories when Squall came up to him out of nowhere and kissed him.  It wasn’t even a big kiss – they didn’t make out or anything.  Just a quick peck.  But neither of them were that big on public displays of affection, and that went double for Squall.  Yuffie whooped from behind him.

“You’ll win next time,” Squall said, and he seemed genuinely sincere about that.  Cloud blinked, confused.  He was shit at scattergories – everyone knew that. 

“Uh…okay.  How much eggnog have you drank?”  Squall glanced at his glass.  It was still halfway full.  He shrugged. 

“Not that much.” 

Cloud frowned.  Maybe Squall was just feeling the Christmas spirit.  He turned back to the next round of scattergories, and maybe there was something to Squall’s kiss because for the first time in five years of this, he won a round.  He was doubly surprised when Squall came up to him, again, and hugged him. 

“I knew you could do it,” he said, very seriously, and there was a slight hitch to his voice.  It was the eggnog – it had to be.  But even Squall wasn’t that much of a lightweight.  His train of thought was broken, though, when Squall pulled Cloud’s Santa hat off his blonde spikes and tried to put it on his own head over the antlers. 

Well, it seemed that Squall was definitely a little drunk.  Cloud shook his head, and pulled the antler headband off, fixing the Santa hat properly.  And then he put the headband on his own head because it was actually pretty great and he didn’t want to lose it.  Zack would probably steal it if given the opportunity. 

“Oh, hey, I have an idea,” Squall said suddenly, and he dragged Cloud over to the doorway. 

“Mistletoe!” Yuffie shrieked.  Aerith appeared out of nowhere, camera on hand. 

“You know how this works, guys,” she said.  Cloud laughed.  He was, surprisingly, feeling it.  And maybe the eggnog was affecting him a bit, too – he was on his third glass. 

“Might as well,” he said to Squall, but then realised that he didn’t have to convince him.  _This_ was his idea.  Squall tossed a smirk back at Aerith, which was immortalized with the flash of the camera, and then turned back and kissed Cloud.  This definitely wasn’t the peck from before.  Squall grabbed Cloud’s head and pressed their lips together, all but shoving his tongue into Cloud’s mouth.  It was definitely unexpected, but Cloud already knew how Squall could get when drunk, so it wasn’t all too surprising.  The thought of being embarrassed crossed Cloud’s mind for a brief second – especially given Aerith’s camera that just kept clicking away.  But Cloud realised something then:  he didn’t particularly care.  This was kind of nice.

And maybe – just maybe – he had a bit of a heretofore undiscovered exhibitionist kink buried deep down in there. 

It was likely.

Squall hitched a leg around Cloud and starting humping his hip.  It took Cloud a minute to clear his head enough to realise that probably wasn’t the best course of action for Squall to start taking here.  He broke the kiss and pushed him away a bit. 

“You might want to hold off on the humping until we’re in private,” he said to Squall.  “Or you’re really going to regret everything in the morning.” Cloud wouldn’t, though.

“It’s fine,” Squall said.  And then, “Whatever.”  He was not happy at the interruption.

Cloud led his boyfriend over to the couch, taking the eggnog from him and gulping it all down himself. 

“Wait here,” he told Squall.  “I’m going to grab you something to help sober you up a bit.”

“I’m fine,” Squall insisted.

“You’re drunk,” Cloud corrected.

“Only a little bit.”  Well, Cloud shrugged to himself, at least Squall realised that he was drunk. 

Out loud he said, “Just wait here and I will be right back.”

“Fine.  Whatever.”

Cloud left for the kitchen.  He did a quick search of the fridge and grabbed a sandwich labelled: “FOR ROXAS.  DO NOT EAT! (SORA AND DAD THAT MEANS YOU!!)” justifying that he was neither Sora nor Zack, and therefore Roxas hadn’t meant him.  He grabbed a bottle of water, too, and then made his way back to the living room. 

Squall was gone.

Cloud didn’t know why he’d expected anything different.

“Hey, Cid – did you see where Squall went?” 

Cid broke out laughing in reply, but didn’t actually offer anything helpful.  Cloud turned to Quistis instead.

“He said something about the hot tub, so I’d check outside if I were you.”

Cloud had an inkling of an idea of what Squall wanted with the hot tub.  The idea gained power as he walked outside and picked up bits and pieces of his boyfriend’s clothes along the way.  He was kind of looking forward to the morning now.  Squall was going to hate himself when he woke up.

When Cloud finally caught up to Squall, it was indeed right outside the hot tub.  The already occupied hot tub.  Squall had made it down to his underwear and was very determinedly trying to pull them off.  Squall was mostly naked, sure, but he didn’t feel cold at all.  It was either the heat of the alcohol or the steam from the tub.  Angeal was in the hot tub, but snoring.  Genesis sat there next to him, watching.  Amused.  Cloud scowled.  Why’d it have to be Genesis?

At least it wasn’t Sephiroth.

“You might want to keep your underwear on,” he said, catching Squall’s hand.  Squall looked at him like he was stupid.

“No,” he said.  “I want to get in.  I can’t get my clothes wet.”  Obviously, his glare added.  He yanked his hand back and shoved down his briefs before Cloud could stop him, jumping into the water.  Genesis and Angeal both got splashed, but Angeal didn’t stir even a little bit.

“This is nice,” Squall said with a sigh, settling in to the water.  His eyes were closed, and a content smile rested on his face.  And then he opened them, and looked up at his boyfriend.  “You should get in, too.”

“I agree,” said Genesis.  Cloud couldn’t tell for sure given the steam, but he strongly suspected that the red-haired man was also skinny-dipping.  So, you know, it wouldn’t just be them.  Angeal probably was, too.  And the water did look enticing, despite the snow surrounding them.  It was just…

Why did it have to be Genesis?

“C’mon, babe, get in,” Squall insisted.  Squall was definitely wasted if he was resorting to “babe”. 

“Oh, hey, are we all skinny dipping?  Awesome!”  That was Tidus, appearing out of nowhere.  “I’m so in!”  His clothes were off and he was in the tub, too, the next second. 

Well, if everyone else was doing it. He had never really paid attention to the “peer pressure” talk his mother had tried to give him as a child.

Cloud shrugged, said what the hell, and pulled his clothes off.  Squall smirked triumphantly when Cloud got in, wasting no time at all sliding onto Cloud’s lap and resuming where they’d left off with the mistletoe – humping and all. 

“Maybe not the best place for that,” Cloud said, and Squall sighed, looking extremely put upon, but stopped.  And then went back to trying to attack Cloud’s mouth.

“You’re so lucky, you guys,” Tidus said.  He’d clearly been going at the eggnog a bit too much himself.  His cheeks were red and eyes unfocussed. “You’ve got each other.  I don’t have Yuna.  She didn’t wanna come.  Now I’m just stuck here watching you two with this weirdo and that other sleeping weirdo and you’re all pretty, but neither of you are as pretty as Yuna.”

Squall abruptly stopped trying to maul Cloud’s lips off to turn to Tidus with a vengeance. 

“Cloud is way prettier than Yuna!” he exclaimed, incensed.

“Only if you’re blind,” Tidus shot back.  “It’s not even a close competition.”  Those were fighting words. Cloud clamped down on the laughter, but he could see where this was about to go.

“You take that back.”

“Never!”

Squall jumped off of Cloud and onto Tidus, attempting to drown the younger blonde in the near boiling water.  It probably would have worked, too, if Tidus didn’t hold his breath for a living playing blitzball.  Cloud managed to separate the two – made more difficult by Tidus attempting to claw Squall’s face and Genesis just sitting there laughing.  The commotion woke Angeal, though, because he suddenly grabbed Tidus from the other side and with a combined effort they pulled the two of them away from each other.  Cloud hauled Squall out of the hot tub and bundled them both up in the towels that Aerith kept on hand.  He grabbed their clothes, leading them in through the sliding door and up the back stairwell to the upstairs bathroom.  It was pretty easy to get them both dried, although getting them dressed was a whole other story.  Cloud managed it, though, somehow, despite Squall doing everything in his power to keep them both naked. 

“Okay!” Cloud said when they were finally decent.  “For real this time – I’m going to get you some water.  Do not move!"

“Whatever,” Squall scoffed.

“I’m serious, Squall.  Don’t go anywhere.”

“Fine,” he huffed.

Cloud watched him through narrowed eyes, but when he didn’t see any kind of protest forming, he nodded and left the bathroom, closing the door behind him.  Squall sat by himself, bored out of his mind.  He stood up and left the bathroom.  He’d never really seen much of the upstairs of this house before.  All the bedrooms were up here. 

Squall wandered into Sora’s room.  He sat on the bed.  It was such a comfortable bed, he thought, flopping back down on it.  He bounced a couple times.  It reminded him of the beds at the presidential palace.  Say what you would about Laguna – his father being the president of a country meant he had some amazing bedding. 

Squall sat up and pulled out his phone.  He dialed without thinking.  The phone rang a couple times and then clicked as it was answered.

_“Hello?”_

“Laguna!” Squall exclaimed enthusiastically.  The other line was silent for a second.  And then, cautiously:

_“…Squall?”_

“Hi, dad, yeah, it’s me!”  A longer silence, and then Laguna replied, weirdly strangled.

 _“Are you drunk?”_ This was, in fact, not the first time Squall had ever drunk dialed Laguna.  Or even the second or third.

“Yes.  But that’s not important.  I just – I just wanted to say something.  I love you, dad.  You’re kind of annoying sometimes, and I’m still bitter that you didn’t know about me for most of my life because you’re a terrible parent.  But you’re a parent and that’s—that’s cool.  I always wanted one.  And now I’ve got one.  You could be worse.” 

_“Uh…thanks, Squall.  I think.”_

“I wanna be a parent,” Squall said suddenly, breath hitching.  “I want to have a kid.  But not just any kid.  Cloud’s kid.  We would have such great kids.  So much better than Zack’s kids.  They’d be really good looking, too.  I’m great looking – you’ve got good genes.  Cloud’s hot.  Have you seen him?   He’s so sexy.  When he takes his shirt off sometimes I want to lick his abs. I wanna have his babies.”

Laguna coughed, possibly stifling a laugh _.  “You, uh…you what?”_

“We would have such great babies.”  Squall was tearing up now.  “I should – I should tell him.  And then we could.  You wouldn’t have to worry, though, we’re adults, so s’not like – like Zack and Aerith.  It wouldn’t be a teen pregnancy.”

Laguna wasn’t stifling his laughing anymore.  Squall didn’t even notice.  _“Yeah,"_  Laguna agreed.  _“You should definitely tell him all of this.”_

“I will.  I’m gonna.”  That is, of course, when Cloud walked in and found Squall on the phone.  “Cloud, hey, I was just talking to Laguna about you.” 

“Laguna?” Cloud asked, eyes wide.  He pulled the phone out of Squall’s hand.  He could hear the cackles of Squall’s father on the other end before the phone even got close to his ear.  That didn’t bode well at all. “Hi, Laguna – this is Cloud.  Sorry about this; Squall’s had a bit too much eggnog tonight.”

 _“Oh, no, it’s fine.  Really.  Can’t wait to see you guys tomorrow.”_  That _really_ didn’t bode well.

“Yeah, uh, see you tomorrow.” And then the phone clicked off. 

Whatever Squall had said to his dad, he was never going to live this down.  Tomorrow was going to be a nightmare.

“Cloud,” he said, very seriously.  It was hard to take Squall seriously when he looked like he was about to tip over, sitting on the bed. 

“Yeah, Squall?”

“I wanna have your babies,” he said.  “We should have babies.”  Cloud clamped down on his laughing. 

“I think that’s gonna be kind of hard to do, given that we’re both guys.”

“Oh.”  Squall looked so forlorn it took everything within Cloud to not start laughing.  Was this what he had said to Laguna on the phone?  “Then we should get married,” Squall continued, nodding.  Yes.  That seemed like a good alternative to him.

“Sure, Squall.  Whatever you want,” Cloud said, not taking him seriously at all. 

“No, really – right now.  Let’s do it.  Let’s go get married.  And then we can – we can find a baby on the street and take it home. We’ll name him Cloud Jr.  Or her.  We could name her Cloud Jr. Don’t give our baby eggnog, Cloud.”

“I won’t,” Cloud promised, straining not to laugh.  “I promise not to give Cloud Jr eggnog.”  He helped his boyfriend up to his feet.  Squall swayed slightly, but Cloud held him steady.  “Although, maybe we should put off the eloping for when you’re sober.   I think we should probably start heading home.” 

“Home, yeah.  That sounds good.  Or…” Squall trailed off, and frowned, thinking hard.  And then he took Cloud by surprise and kissed him hard.  If he’d thought the mistletoe kiss was impressive, that had nothing on this.  “Or we could stay here,” Squall finished, and stuck his hand down Cloud’s pants.  Staying here suddenly seemed like a very good idea.

“Yeah,” Cloud agreed. “Let’s stay here.” 

Then they were kissing again, and, well, it was a private bedroom, so Cloud had no issues with letting Squall start up what he’d tried to do twice now already with the mistletoe and the hot tub.  He only had so much willpower, after all.

And that was how it happened that Cloud and Squall fell asleep naked in Sora’s bed that night, only to be woken up the next morning by screams that killed Squall’s aching head and made him want to die. 

“Oh, God,” Squall moaned when the screams had died down, and Zack and Aerith had rushed their horrified child out of the room, leaving Cloud and Squall time to get decent.

“Yeah, you’re regretting last night now, aren’t you?”  Cloud sounded way too amused, and Squall reached out a hand to smack his leg.  “I guess that means you don’t want to have my babies.”

“Shut up.”

“Cloud Jr.’s gonna be so disappointed.”

“Fuck, tell me I didn’t call Laguna.”

“He’s going to be a very proud grandfather.”

Squall whimpered and buried his head down into the pillow.  “Never again,” he swore.  Cloud laughed because he’d heard that same thing after that time with the fake tattoo and Irvine, but the chuckling slowly died away as a thought occurred to him.

“Hey,” he began quietly.  Squall let out a strangled noise.  “Do you really want to get married?” he asked.  Squall’s head lifted from the pillow and he blinked blearily at Cloud.

“Ask me tomorrow,” he said, dropping his head back down.  His head hurt too much to think about that right now.  Everything hurt too much to think about.  But it also wasn’t a no, so Cloud took that as a win.

He would ask tomorrow.  And he would ask properly, with a ring. 

So all was well that ended well.  And Squall, trying to block out the light, promised himself that he would never, ever, _ever_ drink Aerith’s eggnog again.

(The proposal went just as well as anyone could have predicted.  It probably would have gone better if they had been at home and not in Esthar given that Squall couldn’t look Laguna in the face without glowing bright red.  And if Laguna hadn’t made that comment about having Cloud’s babies because contrary to his PR, he could be just as much of an asshole as his son sometimes. 

Meanwhile, Sora never stepped foot in his bedroom again, and if Roxas wondered about the abrupt room swap, he didn’t question it.  He’d always wanted the bigger room.  Six months later, when at a family dinner Zack mentioned Cloud and Squall’s eggnog fueled night in passing, Roxas certainly wished he’d questioned it more.)

**End.**


End file.
